This customer hasn't been this happy in minutes

I just had what I'd describe as one of the best customer service experiences ever, and it was with Tires Plus. To tell the story in its proper context, I'll have to travel back in time with you for a bit. For the past few weeks, you cannot believe the bad car experiences I've had.

It all began the day before our wedding...

I spent the night at my parents place, because S's surprise bachelor party was happening that evening after our rehearsal, and I wanted to give him space in case he wanted to invite guys over to our apartment after the party. I parked in the driveway, at the end of the driveway behind where my mom parks her car. I would never park behind my dad, because he's been known to back into things. Unfortunately, I think my mom's excitement/stress got to her that day, and in backing out in order to run last-minute errands for their vacation and the wedding, she backed into my Saturn SL2. It was bad, too—$1,500 bad, but thankfully, it was repaired and paid for within a week, and we just took my mom's car on our honeymoon trip.

However, we noticed the car making a bad/loud noise right after it was hit—especially upon starting up and in gear changes. I had my dad listen to the sound, and he said it was a muffler problem, not an engine problem. Whew! We traveled to the Renaissance Festival, knowing there was a hole in the muffler, but not realizing the extent of the problem. Suffice it to say, we had a rather dramatic removal of muffler from my car on the side of I-94, just before the tunnel near Uptown in Minneapolis. The entire muffler system fell/broke off, and we left it there. Sorry for the massive litter! This made for a very loud trip back home, but luckily, S and my cousin Angie who went with us were both pretty good sports.

After having this repaired (for about $88), on my very next trip to class, I had yet another problem; this time, the coolant light came on as soon as I got to the surface streets in the neighborhood of St. Paul near my school's campus. I remedied it by turning on the heater and rolling the windows down to bring the temp down. My cousin Simon deserves a HUGE thank you for checking my coolant, determining that it was probably not an actual radiator problem, and for alleviating my nervousness about driving home—an hour and a half away—with this problem. He determined it was probably a fuse or the radiator fan, and he was right! The fan was dead, which was a $168 fix, but at least my radiator is okay!

And then...

Prior to my next trip to class, my dad checked my tire pressure. It was all good until he got to the back left tire. Tire pressure was waaay low, so he pumped it up, and I was good to go. However, the next time I checked it (yesterday before class) it was down to 15! Yikes! I beefed it back up to 32 or so—you know, for good mileage, and hoped for the best. This afternoon, I was feeling anxious about driving back to St. Paul for class tomorrow morning with this tire leakage issue. I called Tires Plus about checking it out for me. TJ was quick to offer to check if I really needed new tires or just a patch, and so I made a 4:30 appointment. He determined that I did not need new tires—yay!—and proceeded to check out the leak situation. The fix? The valve needed replacing. Cost? Nothing! I was so relieved, and while waiting for the fix, I even got some homework done for my weekend class tomorrow. Bonus!